Soudamini of Nuapatna in Cuttack, which houses a cluster of handloom artisans, uses Google to search for innovative motifs to develop fusion Ikat and Khandua saris. From within her mud hut, she accesses the world and accepts orders online through a mini laptop.
A year ago, things were quite different. In 2018, 38-year-old Hemalata Mahanta’s perceptions about life were limited to her tiny forest village of Khadikapada under Saharapada block. She remembers how when the menfolk of this forgotten village in Odisha’s Keonjhar district got mobile phones with 2G network, women were banned from using it.
"Our husbands thought it was useless to teach us. We were told that the deities would be offended if we held the instrument. It was a shameful sight to find a woman holding a mobile phone," recalls Hemalata.
As 4G network penetrated the remote village, women finally took the plunge in 2019. Today around 2,286 women 'digital sathis' across 76 blocks of six Odisha districts have been trained to use the internet.
A voluntary organisation, Centre for Youth and Social Development (CYSD), collaborated with Foundation for Rural Entrepreneurship Development (FREND) to implement the unique digital literacy campaign supported by Google.
Belonging to the age group 14 to 60, these women were taught the nuances of handling a smartphone, browsing the internet, uploading videos to YouTube and sharing messages through applications. After a month-long training programme, each 'sathi' took up the Herculean task of training 700 rural women in five months covering three to four villages each.
Over 16 lakh women have benefited till date. But it was easier said than done. "It was difficult to convince the men to allow their wives and daughters to participate," says 21-year-old Lipsa of Tigiria block in Cuttack district.
Today these very women, who once lacked self-confidence, have rediscovered their identities. Browsing through videos online, they have managed to enhance livelihood skills on their own. For example, 39-year-old Pooja Behera uses the internet to learn new farming techniques to increase the yield. These digitally-empowered rural women are also leading the fight against Covid-19 in their respective communities and villages.
From circulating precautionary messages among villagers through WhatsApp to running a helpline, they have taken up different tasks. Using internet lessons, the digitally trained women in Tigiria block stitched masks and prepared sanitisers and distributed them among the villagers. What lies ahead? They say in unison: "Miles to cover".
A Few Steps More
The women have also set up a central control room at CYSD’s main office in Bhubaneswar. While imparting digital training to women, the ‘sathis’ had successfully created several WhatsApp groups. They received distress calls and messages on their numbers. They routed their queries to the central control room helpline.
Through the control room, help was provided. Besides, the ‘sathis’ in Thakurmunda and Jasipur blocks of Mayurbhanj district and Saharapada block of Keonjhar district shot 35 short videos of hand-hygiene and other precautionary measures.
From writing the scripts in local dialects to acting and shooting the videos using their smartphones, they did it all. These videos disseminated information among 23,231 families in 174 tribal-dominated villages.